Career: Westvaco, 1963–1964, technical service engineer; University
of Maine, 1964–1967, instructor; Weyerhaeuser Company,
1967–1977, various pulp and paper management positions; Mead
Corporation, 1977–1980, division president; 1980, group vice
president of paperboard; 1981, group vice president of paper;
1981–1983, group vice president of forest products;
1983–1988, senior vice president of forest products;
Georgia-Pacific Corporation, 1988–1989, senior vice president of
pulp and printing paper; 1989–1991, executive vice president of
pulp and paper; 1991–1993, president and COO; 1993, president and
CEO; 1993–2002, president, CEO, and chairman of the board;
2002–, CEO and chairman of the board.

Awards: Named one of the 25 Most Influential Georgians,
Georgia Trend
, 1996–1998; named one of the One Hundred Most Influential
Georgians,
Atlanta Business Chronicle
, 1994, 1995, and 1999–2002; received the Institute of Human
Relations award, American Jewish Committee, 1995.

■ In 1993 Alston Dayton (Pete) Correll became chairman of the board
and chief executive officer of Georgia-Pacific Corporation, one of the
world's top manufacturers of paper and building products. In that
position, Correll focused his efforts on repositioning the company from a
forest-industry buildingmaterials manufacturer to a consumer-products
company. He took the company through a very difficult financial period in
the late 20th and early 21st centuries. During that time stock prices fell
and the company was shadowed by millions of dollars worth of
asbestos-related legal claims. Despite these setbacks, Correll remained
upbeat, showing continued commitment to his company and staunch support
for his industry; he referred to himself proudly as the "king of
toilet paper." In the
National Review
, Jay Nordlinger referred to Correll as "a southerner whose sweet
drawl can't conceal an exceptionally sharp mind."

THE EARLY YEARS

In the 1950s Correll's family owned a men's store in
Brunswick, Georgia. When he was just 12, Correll and his mother were
forced to take over the business when his father suddenly passed away.
Correll had to learn the business from the ground up, including how to sew
hems when his mother was forced to let go of the company's
seamstress.

After graduating from the University of Georgia, Correll was accepted into
Harvard University's MBA program, but he decided instead to attend
the University of Maine, from which he earned a master's degree in
paper and pulp technology and another in chemical engineering. Correll
spent the first ten years of his career at the Weyerhaeuser Company,
working in various positions. He then joined Mead Corporation in 1977 as a
division president. He was with Mead for 11 years, eventually rising to
the position of vice president of the forest products division, when he
left to join Georgia-Pacific.

A NEW FACE AT GEORGIA-PACIFIC

When Correll arrived at Georgia-Pacific in 1988 as senior vice president
of pulp and printing paper, he found a company steeped in the old ways. In
the more than 60 years that the company had then been in operation, it had
not ventured far from its roots as a lumber wholesaler. As Correll moved
up the ranks—to executive vice president in 1989, president and
chief operating officer in 1991, and chief executive officer in
1993—his aim was to move the company away from traditional forest
products, such as timber, pulp, and chemicals, and into more high-value
consumer products, such as tissue. He believed that the move would
strengthen Georgia-Pacific's
earnings and improve its market share. In August 1993 Correll was
appointed to the President's Council on Sustainable Development. He
was part of a group of 25 business leaders who were chosen to help the
government develop policies to encourage economic growth and protect the
environment.

In 2000 Georgia-Pacific moved closer to Correll's goal of becoming
a consumer-oriented company when it acquired Fort James Corporation, the
manufacturer of Dixie Cups, Quilted Northern toilet paper, and Brawny
paper towels. The acquisition cemented Georgia-Pacific as the
world's leading manufacturer of tissue products. In 1999 Correll
led the company through the $7 billion acquisition of another paper giant,
Unisource Worldwide, the leading distributor of paper products and
packaging supplies in North America.

DIFFICULT YEARS AT GEORGIA-PACIFIC

But the company faced several debilitating setbacks. Consumer paper-goods
rivals Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble began to eat away at
Georgia-Pacific's share of the market, and the company faced
millions of dollars in liability from asbestos-related lawsuits. The
liabilities stemmed from the company's production in the 1960s and
1970s of wallboard joint compound containing asbestos fibers.
(Georgia-Pacific stopped using asbestos in 1977.) Furthermore, a
newconstruction slowdown had reduced the demand for building materials and
dropped the prices on timber and other construction products.

In 2001 the company faced a run of bad luck. A $400 million deal to sell a
Mississippi pulp mill to Enron Corporation fell through when the latter
company went through its much-publicized financial meltdown. Then,
Williamette Industries considered joining with Georgia-Pacific's
building-products division, an arrangement that would have netted $3
billion in much-needed income for Georgia-Pacific. But Williamette turned
down the deal because of concerns over asbestos liability, and it was
acquired instead by rival Weyerhaeuser.

In 2002 Correll sought to reduce the company's debts and increase
shareholder value by splitting Georgia-Pacific into two separate publicly
traded companies—a consumer-products and packaging company (Brawny,
Coronet, Dixie, Quilted Northern), and a building-products and
distribution company. He was going to head up the new consumer-products
company. There was some talk that the move was an attempt to shield
certain divisions from the asbestos liability. The separation never went
through, however. Georgia-Pacific withdrew its proposed $1 billion stock
offering in early 2003, citing poor market conditions and slow sales on
building products.

Also in 2002, for the second year in a row, Correll did not get his
promised $2 million bonus. The board cited as its reasons disappointing
earnings and the continued decline of the company's stock prices.
Georgia-Pacific stocks had dropped 42 percent in 2002, and the company was
nearly $12 billion in debt, in large part because of the Fort James
acquisition. Late that year Standard & Poor's announced that
it was downgrading Georgia-Pacific's debt from BBB- to BB+, or junk
status.

In the midst of this difficult period, Correll experienced health
problems. In October 2002 he was hospitalized with chest pains, and he
required angioplasty to open a blocked artery. Just over one week after
his hospitalization, however, he was back in the office for a conference
call, and he returned to work full time within a month. In early 2003
Moody's Investors Service further downgraded
Georgia-Pacific's credit rating, citing rising asbestos
liabilities, high debt level, and uncertainty surrounding the future of
the company's building products. In a conference call with
investors that year, Correll admitted, "We're in the worst
possible of all worlds for Georgia-Pacific right now" (Associated
Press, January 22, 2003). But he was confident that his company would
recover as soon as the market rebounded.

In an effort to reduce debt and shift the company's focus to its
consumer-products divisions, Correll began selling off many of the
company's building-products businesses. In 2002 Georgia-Pacific
sold a controlling 60 percent of its Unisource Worldwide distribution
segment. Two years later it unloaded its building-products distribution
business to a new company owned by the investment group Cerberus Capital
Management. In early 2003 the board of directors met to discuss the
company's rising debt. There was reportedly some discussion of
removing Correll from his position, which the board would not corroborate.

THE TIDE SHIFTS AGAIN FOR GEORGIA-PACIFIC

Later in 2003 the company's luck began to turn. Georgia-Pacific
reported better-than-expected earnings, especially in its packaging and
building-materials divisions. Its stock soared, and the junk-bond market
experienced a resurgence, earning the company much-needed revenue against
its debt.

Correll continued to shift the company's strategic focus to its
consumer products. In 2003 and 2004 Georgia-Pacific spent millions
revamping its Brawny and Quilted Northern products. The company developed
a new drying technology, which made Brawny paper towels soft on one side
and tough on the other. To promote the new technology, the company rolled
out a series of ads with a new "Brawny man." In January 2004
Georgia-Pacific released what it touted as the "softest
ever" incarnation of Quilted Northern toilet paper, complete with a
new ad campaign and redesigned packaging. By 2004, with Correll still at
the helm, Georgia-Pacific boasted annual sales of more than $20 billion,
and the company employed
more than 60,000 people throughout North America and Europe.

In addition to his duties at Georgia-Pacific, Alston Correll served on a
number of corporate and association boards, including Norfolk Southern
Corporation, SunTrust Banks, American Forest and Paper Association, and
the Institute of Paper Science and Technology. He once served as chairman
of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and he has been on the boards of
several charitable organizations, including the Nature Conservancy, the
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Carter Center, Keep America Beautiful, and
the Robert W. Woodruff Arts Center.

See also
entries on Georgia-Pacific Corporation, The Mead Corporation, SunTrust
Banks Inc., and Weyerhaeuser Company in
International Directory of Company Histories
.